Summary
Personal Information
Crime
Voyage
Transportation
John Walker was transported on the Edwin Fox, departing 24th Aug 1858 and arriving 20th Nov 1858 with 284 passengers.
892 ton ship, built in Calcutta, India in 1853. Transported convicts, pensioner guard, soldiers and their families - from Plymouth, England to Western Australia - 1858. (Had been to Australia previously, in 1856, as a passenger ship.) (Later went on to service in the Crimean War.) Converted to be a passenger ship and carried immigrants to New Zealand. In 1880 converted, again, as a cool storage facility in Picton, New Zealand. Ship was in use until 1950 when abandoned. In 1965 she was bought by the 'Edwin Fox Society' and towed to Shakespeare Bay for restoration and then towed to Picton Harbour, New Zealand for display and is on the National Trust Registry, NZ. She is the second oldest surviving merchant ship.
Edwin FoxReferences
| Primary Source | Australian Joint Copying Project. Microfilm Roll 93, Class and Piece Number HO11/18, Page Number 291 (147) |
| Source Description | This record is one of the entries in the British convict transportation registers 1787-1867 database compiled by State Library of Queensland from British Home Office (HO) records which are available on microfilm as part of the Australian Joint Copying Pro |
| Original Source | Great Britain. Home Office |
| Compiled By | State Library of Queensland |
| Database Source | British convict transportation registers 1787-1867 database |
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Convict Notes
John Walker was listed as a 'Labourer' on arrival in WA. He was 5' 7 1/4" tall, light brown hair, hazel eyes, sallow complexion, middling stout, D on left side, scar left side of chin. The son of Francis and Ann McCann. John was transported for 'Stealing one shirt, one sheet, one handkerchief, one pair of boots and one pair of shoes'. John was a Catholic as was Mary, they had 10 children, 7 still living at the time of John's death. They were married on 4/3/1863 in the Catholic church in Fremantle - He was listed as John Walker on the BDM but the children are McCann's. John was a miner at Wheal Fortune Mine, the Yanganooka Mine in 1865 and the Gwalla Mine, just south of Northampton in 1867, they later moved back to Perth. 13/11/1880: John died of Pneumonia, apparently John died before the priest could give him the last rites and hear his confession, the priest refused to bury him in consecrated ground. Mary is supposed to have said that there was no way he would be buried in unconsecrated ground and she would have the Methodist minister bury him. Going further, she took the children away from the convent school and brought them all up Methodists. Mary’s views were so strong against the Catholic religion that she did not attend any of the Catholic weddings of her children. Mary made a deathbed return to Catholicism in 1915 when she died, but both Mary and John are buried in the Wesley section at the East Perth Cemetery.
John McCann (believed to be his family name) and his wife Mary (nee Keane) were commemorated at the Pioneers Memorial Service held at East Perth Cemeteries in May 2011. The citation, including reference sources, prepared for that event is available on the East Perth Cemeteries website.
JOhn Walker formerly John McCann was my great grandfather